Tongue tie dilemma

[charlieg22]

Hi i am currently breastfeeding ds2 who is now 4 weeks old. It has been v painful since day one + a couple of weeks ago the hv + midwife diagnosed him with a slight tongue tie. Have been referred to kings tt clinic + have an apt there tomorrow pm. Am now concerned if am doing the right thing - he still takes ages to feed + even after an hour of feeding still seems hungry - on one side it is constantly painful with him sucking really hard + pinching/pulling but on the other its 50/50 sometimes like this othr times he doesnt really suck but can feel what is either his gums or tongue rubbing which isnt as bad - ds1 refused to breastfeed so have nothing to compare it to. Really want to carry on but its causing jealousy issues with ds1 over the amoumt of time i spend feeding him not to mention making it hard to leave the house as hes constantly feeding or wanting to when hes awake. Dh thinks we should move onto bottles to make our lives easier + so he can share the burden a bit more + doesnt think we should habe his tongue clipped. Sorry to ramble but i guess i just wanted some advice on how it should feel if hes feeding properly to see if he might be able to i dont want to put him through the procedure if its not the reason altho been told it is likely to be. Has anyone been to kings + had it done? As i type hes thrashing around on my right boob when i know there is milk there

I'd wait and see what difference the snip makes. My second baby had a TT and was very similar to how you describe, and once it was snipped, he did get better at feeding.

Lots of people, midwives/Hvs/doctors included, massively underestimate and downplay the difficulties a TT can cause.

Plus, tell your DP that a TT can also cause speech problems as a child gets older - so snipping it is not all about feeding. It would need to be done under GA for an older baby so best to get it snipped now when its still a very minor procedure.

Ok forget the feeding issues for a moment TT can cause problems, bottle feeding, problems with teeth decay and speech problems. He may not be able to lick an icecream or French kiss, these are just some of the issue that TT can cause. He's not granted to have any of these problems but you won't know until he's older and it is much easier to snip a TT in a tiny baby.

if I'd been given the option with DS I would have had it done, but as we where lucky and had no pain feeding they wouldn't do it.

Have it sniped then after a couple of Weeks reassess how feeding is going. i'm afraid the tousle problem is not nearly just the feeding issue. Can you try to make some just one on one time with him, send daddy our with baby in the pram for an hour. Read to him while you are feeding the baby, try having some special toys for him at feeding time a well.

It maybe you decided to introduce one or two bottles but it doesn't have to be all on nothing.

Both of mine had theirs clipped, and there was absolutely nothing to the procedure. There was no blood and they didn't wake up. So even if it hadn't made a difference I wouldn't have felt bad about it. We spent far longer in the waiting room than the procedure took!

But anyway it did make a huge difference to feeding, and mine ended up being very efficient, fast feeders which I loved. And my shredded nipples recovered in a couple of days.

And it's right that it's not just feeding that it can affect. It can cause speech issues, and can stop your child sticking their tongue out (pros and cons there, but I wanted mine to be able to do it). And can make them a bit spitty.

So faced with it again, I would get it clipped again.

Ds2 had his tongue tie cut at about 4 weeks. It's done in a second with a pair of sterile scissors... If you leave it until they much older children and it's still a problem, it requires an operation with anaesthetic and stitches, or the child learns to live with it (if it hasn't caused speech problems), or sometimes the tongue tie severs by itself, if it wasn't a thick tongue tie. It did make breastfeeding less agonising so that I could continue (I stopped breastfeeding when he was 13 months), but ds2 was never as good at it as ds1 had been! I think he'd already learnt some bad habits and it took a few weeks for the internal bruising to subside inside my breast from the 4 weeks of biting me to get the milk out. Subsequently, the tongue tie has partially grown back (I don't think the midwife did a very good job of cutting it - she was surprised by how thick it was), but not sufficiently to cause any big issues (he can stick his tongue out of his mouth, but can't stick it out and up towards his top lip as that tugs on the tongue tie too much - it can only point down!) and at the time, it just upset him for a minute and then he calmed down.

If you want to carry on feeding, I'd recommend getting the tie snipped.
DS1 went from feeding what felt like non stop to feeding every couple of hours a few days after having his tie cut.

DS2 was never as bad, but we still saw an improvement having had the tie snipped.

At this age, it really isn't too traumatic - mine objected more to being swaddled than having the tie cut.